The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East

This meticulously researched study from Asian studies scholar Harding (The Japanese) explores the history of Westerners’ engagement with Asian spiritual beliefs. From Herodotus onward, he writes, Western accounts of Asia have frequently been characterized by a “potent blend of fantasy and hearsay.” In the colonial era, a “deepening but highly selective Western understanding of how people in India, China and Japan saw the world” developed among colonial powers—the “Oriental” worldview was imagined by Westerners as simplified but also highly refined and spiritual. The Victorian period saw the birth of theosophy, which blended these uniquely Western ideas of what Hinduism and Buddhism were with the fabulousness of the occult. At this stage, Harding writes, Eastern philosophy became a powerful, revolutionary outlet for Westerners feeling a lack of spiritual satisfaction in their own societies. Harding traces several lesser-known 20th-century figures who melded Eastern philosophies with Western thought, among them Swiss psychiatrist Erna Hoch, who ran one of India’s first mental health clinics and blended Indian philosophies with psychotherapy. Even as Harding reckons with a range of flamboyant figures, from Marco Polo to Madame Blavatsky, his prose remains subdued; his aim is to uncover how extensively Asian thinking influenced the West, eschewing the excesses of Orientalist racism and excavating the through line of philosophy. Reader mileage may vary, but it’s an intriguing perspective on the spiritual life of the West. (June)